This is just silly.

[palsgraf_polka]

For $2, you can buy small amounts of specific spices to put in the recipe on the back.

Comments

[palsgraf-polka.livejournal.com]

Thing is, I know spices are expensive. But honestly, by the time you buy several of these, you could have bought some basic spices for the money you spend on these little wastes of materials and money. Like this specific recipe, you could get all of those spices in the Mexican aisle for about $5. And now you have spices for MANY recipes. And it's not like you need to have a million spices. Really you only need salt, pepper, chili powder, oregano, basil, marjoram, thyme, garlic powder, cumin, sage and ginger. You can do a lot with those. That's an investment of about $25 and you have a LOT of spices for future meals. Here you spend $2 and get one meal.

[iron-chef-gein.livejournal.com]

Yes, but how much of those herbs and spices are you going to use in 6 months, which is the maximum shelf life of packaged seasonings before their flavor seriously fades? (And how many people go to the trouble of date-stamping the containers they buy?) I frequently purchase only enough herb/spice for a particular dish from a vendor whose wares are consistently fresh. This is, quite frankly, marketing genius on McCormick's part-- too bad their stuff isn't that good.

[palsgraf-polka.livejournal.com]

You can always freeze the spices to extend freshness. That little packet of crappy spices is $2!

I'm not saying the marketing isn't brilliant, BTW, but that it's a total waste of money and really environmentally unfriendly.

[iron-chef-gein.livejournal.com]

Freezing spices deleteriously affects their essential oils (which, similarly, is why unground coffee beans should not be frozen). As to the financial issue, shouldn't we applaud every effort to keep currency moving in this alleged period of recovery? If the obviously witless consumers of McCormick's bland and dessicated twigs don't spend their money on this nonsense, alternate purchases would likely be far less innocuous, i.e., crystal meth and child pornography. Is that the kind of world you want to live in, Aem? Is it?! Finally, as the ecohostile packaging ... as I am about to posit to Mr. Blaque, there may be some good in our proliferation of so many carcinogens. Our species has pretty much stopped evolving since the last major ice age, and without the introduction of a vast and exotic array of possible mutagens, we will soon become stultified in our own mediocrity.

Buy more pre-packaged, pre-portioned seasonings!!!

[palsgraf-polka.livejournal.com]

I had no idea! My mother buys herbs and spices in bulk from this gourmet place and keeps them in the freezer. I always thought that was fine. Thanks for the FYI.

[iron-chef-gein.livejournal.com]

Okay for herbs, not for spices. Alton agrees.